2012's biggest tax cheats named and shamed

Household money

Updated on 04 January 2013 | 21 Comments

HMRC has released information, including photos, of the biggest tax evaders of last year, who are collectively serving over 150 years behind bars.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has published details and photos of the top 32 tax cheats of 2012.

They were sentenced to a combined total of 155 years and 10 months for crimes including tax evasion on imported cigarettes and alcohol, smuggling gold and garlic, and VAT fraud.

Photos of the criminals and information about the convictions have been published on photo-sharing website Flickr. You can view them here.

The photo above shows some of the members of a gang who attempted to smuggle 20 million cigarettes into the UK from Dubai by describing them in shipping documents as babies’ toys. The total duty they were attempting to evade is estimated at £3.3 million.

The Government has given HRMC £994 million to tackle tax evasion, with the aim of raising an additional £7 billion a year by 2014/15.

If you suspect customs or excise fraud or tax evasion, you can report it via the HMRC website.

More on tax

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